growing urban wildflowers~: knit hats and sandals: Texas 2013 (2)

I might have talked before about one of the reasons we homeschool being so that we can travel as much as we can. Many homeschool families have an important lifestyle tilt, something special to them: sports, dance, farming, arts, even "simply" strong academics. Early on, we knew we wanted to share our love of travel, to show our kids as much of the world as we could, and how they can learn and grow by simply being and exploring somewhere new. An important part of that, for us, is doing things we've never done before!

When we decided to go to Texas this winter, quite a while ago, I knew I wanted to look for a guest ranch to visit. Kaatje and I horseback-rode at Theodore Roosevelt NP a year or so ago and she really enjoyed it, and I did some (slightly more intensive) horseback riding when I was (much) younger and still like it, so I thought a day "on the ranch" would be fun for all of us, since Gret is now old enough to ride. Jeff agreed out of his willing-to-try-anything-once heart. (This is one reason we get along so well!)

Visiting the horses.

Our 24 hours on the ranch (good guest ranches can be quite expensive) was chilly, but filled with fun and lots of fresh air. At a place that can easily see 70-90 people at one time during their busy season in the spring and summer, we were the only people on site aside from the wranglers and workers. Having full run of the place was a bit lonely for the kids, perhaps, but we enjoyed the peace and vast quietness.

Feeding the longhorns (not us, the wrangler!)

He had a long-handled whip to keep those horns away from us as they ate

(not for "whipping" them, but pushing on their foreheads to move them away).

The ranch keeps this small herd simply to have longhorns on the property to show visitors. The cattle can been dangerous, especially when they're eating these favorite nuggets, but they leave people alone in general and we could walk through their pastures as we wished.